MICA Hosts National Community Arts Convening, March 13-15

Front-Page Baltimore Messenger Article Covers the Art of Healing

Posted 02.11.11 by MICA Communications

BALTIMORE-- MICA presents The Community Arts Convening and Research Project, offering a forum for discussions centered around the idea that community-grounded arts and culture enhance the well-being, development, empowerment and voice of disenfranchised communities. The Convening, open to the public, will take place campuswide, Sunday, March 13-Tuesday, March 15.

READ: A front-page Baltimore Messenger article about "Art in the Service of Ritual and Healing."

Funded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the project provides a platform for college and university faculty, students and community-based practitioners, scholars, leaders and youth to meet and generate new ideas, share resources, reflect on new curriculum and pedagogy, define and solve problems, develop action plans and cultivate new partnerships.

Five Writing Group Fellows, selected by the editorial board in fall 2010, present their in-progress work at this year's convening and, ultimately, the resulting texts and other documentation is scheduled to be published in fall 2011.

The editorial board for the 2011 Writing Group Fellowships is comprised of: Ron Bechet, professor of art at Xavier University of Louisiana; Nicole Garneau, adjunct faculty for cultural studies at Columbia College Chicago and research assistant at the MacArthur Foundation; Debra Rubino, director of strategic communications at Open Society Institute-Baltimore; Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains, professor emerita at California State University Monterey Bay; and Ken Krafchek, director of M.A. and M.F.A. in Community Arts programs at MICA.

Admission for the conference is $180 per person. For more information on the convening and research, or to register, visit www.mica.edu/convening.

Founded in 1826, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is the oldest continuously degree-granting college of art and design in the nation. The College enrolls nearly 3,500 B.F.A., M.F.A., M.A., M.A./M.B.A., M.A.T., M.P.S. and continuing studies students from 49 states and 65 countries in fine arts, design, electronic media, art education, liberal arts, and professional studies degree and non-credit programs. With art and design programs ranked in the top 10 by U.S. News & World Report, MICA is pioneering interdisciplinary approaches to innovation, research, and community and social engagement. Alumni and programming reach around the globe, even as MICA remains a cultural cornerstone in the Baltimore/Washington region, hosting hundreds of exhibitions and events annually by students, faculty and other established artists.

Highlights from select sessions:

• The keynote address, with a panel presentation, focuses on envisioning a Community Arts University Without Walls (CAUWW). It will focus on the courses, course description and curricula with scholars, students and community activists that will provide the framework for establishing an accredited certificate in community arts. This initiative will provide students with limited financial resources access to a culturally grounded educational experience focused on cultural equity, social justice and cultural rights.

• Art in the Service of Ritual and Healing looks at the ways different cultures and faith groups have used collaborative art and ritual to find healing, celebration and resolve.

• Defining & Measuring Community Arts Outcomes: This session will present existing examples and research on how to define outcomes of community art, will invite participants to participate in a research activity and will explore methods for future evaluation.

• Baltimore United Viewfinders: Youth from East Baltimore leadership groups have come together with the shared mission of telling the collective story of their community. Using photography and video, they have captured the ideas, opinions and creative interests of individuals from the neighborhoods surrounding MICA PLACE. Youth will present video clips accompanied by a photography exhibition and gallery talk.